SARS-coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV-2), as it is also being called, has been under increasing scrutiny in recent days as scientists try to determine how it might have passed from exotic animals to humans. This type of thing simply does not happen with coronaviruses apart from some kind of tampering, the world is learning.
In order to get to the bottom of it, laboratories could undertake the lengthy task of dissecting the virus using traditional methods. But this would take an incredible amount of time, and many are demanding answers now.
This is where the new research paper from “down under” comes into play, as scientists there utilized a powerful in silico method of modeling analysis to more rapidly determine what made the Wuhan coronavirus (COVID-19) transfer from animals to humans.
Using an in silico – meaning the use of silicon computer chips for advanced simulation, the team – structural homology modeling approach to characterize the SARS-CoV-2 spike protein, the team was able to determine that it has a high affinity for binding to the human ACE2 receptor.
The next step involved constructing models of the ACE2 receptors of relevant species in order to calculate the binding energy of SARS-CoV-2 spike protein to each one of them. This revealed that the novel virus prefers human ACE2 receptors more than any others, including those found in bats.
This is an interesting find, seeing as how authorities, especially early on, were insistent that the Wuhan coronavirus (COVID-19) originated in bats that were being sold as meat at so-called “wet markets” in Wuhan, China.
What this all revealed to the scientists involved is that SARS-CoV-2 somehow became “highly adapted” to human pathogens more than any other pathogens. And this suggests that the virus many not have originated naturally.
“Overall, the data indicates that SARS-CoV-2 is uniquely adapted to infect humans, raising important questions as to whether it arose in nature by a rare chance event or whether its origins might lie elsewhere,” they wrote in their abstract....<<<Read The Full Article Here>>>...